


Straightforward Approach

by atomiccourier



Series: Atom I.C. Courier [11]
Category: Fallout: New Vegas
Genre: Dismemberment, Gen, POV Second Person, a vague number of nameless and faceless npc deaths, kind of, mentions of pain-reducing drugs, sorry - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-23
Updated: 2017-10-23
Packaged: 2019-01-21 22:17:22
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 726
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12467132
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/atomiccourier/pseuds/atomiccourier
Summary: The beat-up highwayman's motors roar as it speeds across the desert to make itself parallel to the train's rushing flank.A shoe braces itself on the door, balancing against the wind and the shaking, before the man launches himself across the gap and into a large hole torn into the metal.





	Straightforward Approach

**Author's Note:**

> Remind yourself that overconfidence is a slow and insidious killer.

You have felt rumbling like this maybe once in your life. The grand escape from the depths of the Sierra Madre comes to mind. 

Maybe that’s why your heart is racing. Although that could be the wind threatening to push your body off balance when you’ve only just started to steady yourself on the floor. Maybe it’s that if you _do_ fall, you could be crushed beneath dozens of wheels or have your face torn off by the ground which races by at incredible speeds. Maybe it’s a combination of all of those things.

The train is new, but also old. It was rebuilt some months ago on hundreds of donated caps, as were the tracks. The oldest parts are pre-war. It rattles a bit, but hasn’t fallen apart yet.

The situation is thus: raiders from the east travelled west, found the Mojave, and decided it would be a good idea to hijack the train and hold it for ransom against New Vegas.

It might have been a good idea. The train has become a fast relied-upon service. It carries people and products alike. To take that and all it carries out of the picture would put immense pressure on the city to pay up, perhaps continually.

Unfortunately for them, they did not predict the arrival of the Mayor of New Vegas himself.

It is to be expected. You do not take the spotlight as much these days. You know, however, that the people in the next car will remember you, because the raiders roaming about to keep them in check are quickly disposed of. Two gunshots to their heads. Maria’s muzzle smokes, as if she is satisfied at being brought into action again after months of sleep.

The people flinch back collectively at the gunshots, then lean out of the benches to stare at the bodies, and at you. They’re like a singular mass with two and a half dozen eyes.

Their Mayor steps over the bodies and leans down to disarm them. You speak casually, with a wicked smirk. Who here can wield a gun? Most of them stand. You hand the guns off to the two women wearing armor nearest to you. One of them has a limp, but you know from experience that a good aim can make up for an inability to escape, and vice versa.

No one knows what’s going on up front. That’s okay, you’re going up there anyway.

 

The next three cars continue like this. Dispose, disarm, converse, continue. When you enter the fourth, they’re ready for you. You open the door get a bullet in your good knee. You see someone running into the next car, shouting about an intruder. The cycle continues. Dispose, disarm, converse, continue. Only difference is that there’s a little more bleeding, and a bit of a limp.

You were high on Med-X before you even got here.

Now they start coming down the cars towards you. They pile up in the doorways and stink up the cars with their corpses.

You haven’t felt this alive in over a year. Death at your fingertips, a display for your citizens, and a reassurance to everyone that Courier Six is you. Storms, bullets, sand, and wind.

With every other step towards the engine, dull pain hurtles up your thigh. With every other step a raider falls. With every other step you are brought that much closer to the engine.

 

In the final few passenger cars, they’ve started using citizens as shields. You line up your shots in VATS, and solve the problem. You’ve got a couple more holes in yourself, but that’s not an issue.

You’re high on Med-X.

 

When you reach the engine, the iron door has been bent off of its frame. The leader has his shotgun pointed at the kneeling head of the engineer. You’re brought back to the vague memories you have of your head injury, and move, seven feet in an instant, placing your right hand on the muzzle.

You and the raider lock gazes. He was not expecting you to move that fast. He squints. The gun jerks back. Your ears ring. Your arm is in pieces across the floor and the engineer. The floor comes up to meet the side of your face.

 

You’re high on Med-X.

 

You lift Maria and put two bullets in that bastard’s jaw.

**Author's Note:**

> A few facts:
> 
> I'm not dead!
> 
> This fic will most likely have a second chapter, involving mopey atom in another daze.
> 
> Have you noticed that this style only really works when the characters are in some sort of daze? Maybe it's because you're listening to the corpse in the back of Atom's head. I might have to make some changes if I want to write more kinds of fics. Like, not writing in the second person. I think that's what turns most people away.
> 
> I want to play New Vegas again, soon, but college will probably get in the way. If I can find the time it'll most likely result in me writing more.


End file.
